Wrapped in Your Arms - Fireflight

Your are my strong tower - Kutless

Clouds and trembling

Sometimes our paths are cloudy and we cant see what is ahead of us. And sometimes the ground trembles. It is in these times that the words of the scripture are so sweet. "Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path." "You enlarge my steps under me, And my feet have not slipped." We are not shaken or surrounded by clouds without purpose. We are shaken so that only Christ may remain. And there are clouds so that we don't lean on our own understanding. I must understand that I do not uphold my self. Christ upholds me. And so as the storms come, we know that He is Lord.

Is my heart honest and genuine?

I had this written about me the other day, "I honestly believe that you have a heart that truly seeks to honor God! ...and I couldn't think of a greater compliment to give anyone than that." I don't know if this is true. When I look at my heart and my motives, I don't like what I see. There is a bunch of false pretenses and unhealthy desires. All my best motives are tainted by great sin. But what I have learned is that instead of looking to myself and trying to get my motives in right, I have to look to Christ. My sin, my false motives, my ugliness were born on the cross. And so I walk out not with any confidence that my motives are right, but in the confidence that Christ covers my sin, because my motives are not right.

When Isaiah saw the Lord, he got an honest and genuine look into who he was. And this man of God cried out, " Woe is me! For I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips . . ." God justifies and imparts grace to Isaiah, cleansing him of his sin. It is through grace that God sends Isaiah to minister and enables Isaiah to say,"Here I am! Send me." His grace is sufficient.

John Piper - the wrath of God

Marc Driscoll - Spiritual Gifts

These sermons give a good beginning background in understanding the gifts of the Holy Spirit, however these sermons are only a basic understanding of these things. Read what the word of God says about these things, for the word of God is the standard for understanding about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

From: First Corinthians: Christians Gone Wild by Mark Driscoll

Spiritual Gifts part 1: Definition, Wisdom, Knowledge
(As the case with all these gifts, defining them can be difficult, but the key is that these gifts edify and build up the church. It is ok that some might have different definitions of the gifts, because whatever you call it these gifts, gifts are to be displayed in the church.)

Spiritual Gifts part 2: Faith, Healing, Miracles, Discernment

Spiritual Gifts part 3: Apostles, Teaching, Help/Service, Administration
(We disagree on some of the fine points of roles of women and how they use these gifts (for example I do not believe that women should publicly teach or lead men) , although we both agree that women should be using these gifts and these gifts are vital to the church.)

Spiritual Gifts part 4: Encouragement, Giving, Leadership, Mercy, Hospitality
( I have seen great leaders that did not fit the worldly idea of leadership, but ended up being great leaders when encouraged. Don't dismiss someone just because they don't fit our expectations. Sometimes understanding the giftings that people have is through discernment and learning to hear God on how you can encourage others.)

Spiritual Gifts part 5: Tongues and Prophesy



I can't support the next sermon, its position on women doesn't fully address the position of women in the church and makes an assumption that is not supported within scripture or by the evidence. The evidence actually indicates that these scriptures are not a response to unruly women, but a standard set based on the word of God. Although I disagree with Driscoll on this, I do love what Driscoll says about your family as a man and that a wife who is pursuing theology and coming to her husband is sexy not sexist. I also agree with him that children's/women's ministries are often the result of trying to fill the gap of men who do not lead in their own homes. Men should lead their homes and be the ones their wives and children can come to for theological questions. For more on this issue see - Cherished or 1 Corinthians 14 or Letter to the Women

Lost Catholic to Saved by Grace - Jacquelyn's Testimony

Al Mohler Live Dangerously

Christianity is not exclusive, part 2

Resurection body

Have you ever thought about the fact that if you had never seen a tree or a plant and saw a seed for the first time, in all your imagination you would never have been able to dream what it would become.

So Much More - a book recommendation

I have been reading So Much More by the Botkin sisters. It has been challenging me on what it means to be a father, a brother, and what it means to expand the Kingdom of God.

Personal thoughts on my neighborhood

I am not writing this to convict other people. I am writing this to convict myself, and ask God to teach me how to love and to preach the Gospel. I desire your prayers that God will do this in me, because in myself, there is nothing.

I have been talking with a few people how the economy is affecting this area, how crime is on the rise. I have been thinking not so much on how to fix this, but on how do I faithfully respond to this. Is it right for me me to turn my face the other way? I was talking to my neighbor about a part of town I went to several years ago. He told me not to go back, because I would get jumped. And I am thinking we are willing to send men off to war. Even in the church we send missionaries off to dangerous places, but am I willing to go to these hard places here next to me to love my neighbor.

So where does this begin. I don't know. But I don't want turn my head away.

The charasmatic and the doctrines of men

I would have to call my self a “charismatic”. I believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are still relevant for, today, and I long to see them used in the church. However my heart is broken by those who call themselves “charismatic”, but have no biblical understanding of what that means. Some of what is called the “charismatic movement” is really part of an “experiential movement” where the doctrine of the Word is replaced by the doctrine of men. I was recently in a meeting where a person proclaimed “Seventeen, is the number of victory, and I believe that God has victory for us. Just proclaim it!” My thought was, “What? Where in the world did they get that? It is not in scripture. Yes, God does have victory for us, amazing victory, and we can talk about this, (yes, lets talk about the depths of it! We can even dance.) but your missing it, your missing the power, by relying on the doctrines of men.” Over the years, I have heard people talk about “7-12 steps of freedom and victory”, casting out “spirits of fear and anger, etc.”, “spirit filled church”, “second tier Christianity or another level of Christianity”, what different symbols mean in dreams, methods of prophesy, and so on. But none of these teachings are in the Bible. They may pull out a few scriptures to suit them at best, but when you really test them against a serious look at scripture they don’t stand up. Where do they get this from? They get this from having doctrines that come from teachings of men and from allowing experiential events dictate doctrine. The scripture is very clear on its rebuke against leaning on the doctrines of men, no matter how holy or convincing they may appear. Of course this is not just a “charismatic” thing. When I talk to many Christians and I ask them why they believe what they believe, most of the time the response is “Well, I feel God would . . .” or “I have experienced or seen this . . .” You can’t do that. You can’t base what you believe on what you feel or what you have experienced. I will tell them, “OK, go study the scripture and come back and show me where this is.” Who God is is not left for our interpretation. Sound doctrine is not based on what we feel or what we have seen or what other people have done or what we have experienced or how “blessed” a ministry appears to be. Sound doctrine is based on the word of God, and it does not change. If we base our beliefs and actions on the doctrines of men we will fall, but if we are planted firmly in God’s word with a heart of obedience, our foundation will stand firm along with what is built on it.

When Paul was writing the church at Corinth, he told them that it was not good that they boasted in men. “For when one says, ‘I follow Paul’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos’, are you not merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? . . . For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” The Corinthian church was a place where the gifts of the Holy Spirit were being made manifest, however Paul wrote, “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, ‘I follow Paul’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos’, are you not merely human?” Paul wrote the Corinthians, "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." In Colossians, Paul writes, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” Jesus rebuked the people of His day because the held to the doctrines of men rather than to the word of God. We don’t shape the word of God, the word of God shapes us.

The “charismatic” are not the only ones who have this problem. I think the “experiential movement” is a plague that affects the church in general and in many different ways. I use them as an example, because, I am one, and I believe that even with all their faults many who I have met and know personally have so much to offer the church. And where they are solid in the word, I am amazed and challenged. I love my brothers in the Lord. I would like to see what God would do in the “charismatic movement” if the word of God became the foundation it was rooted in. Paul also loved those in the church, who didn’t have it all together. He addressed the Corinthians with love and he believed in what God was doing in them. His dear love for them is evident in his writings. And I believe iron sharpens iron. I need my brothers to press into sound doctrine and into Christ, because we do not walk this Christian walk alone. I have so much to learn from my brothers. None of us are perfect and have it right. We come together as sinners, standing in the grace of God, alone. None of us have anything to boast, but instead we are to encourage each other in the Lord. Also, I have found that the biggest stumbling block for many believing that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are relevant for today is because the “experiential movement” is so prevalent in those who call themselves “charismatic”. If the word of God became central to those who call themselves “charismatic” and solid and sound teaching and doctrine characterized the way they walked, then they could teach others about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I want to see this. So I will leave you with this: Stop believing in the doctrine of men and start truly and faithfully believing in the power of the Holy Spirit. We will find that the power of the Holy Spirit is stronger than anything man could come up with.

Unshockable

One of the things my pastor says often is that he wants us to be an unshockable people, where we come together and love each other despite all the muck and mess that each of us bring to the table. When we truly understand who we are, and we see our own sin and our own desperate need for the Gospel, now at this very moment, we are not shocked by other peoples sins and faults. There is no longer any room for boasting. We have no good thing apart from Christ. And as we see God's patience and love in our own lives and understand his grace and the power of the Gospel, it frees us to love those around us. It also frees us to celebrate, because when our boasting is gone, we are free to rejoice together in the one who truly deserves the glory and honor and majesty.